West Indies and Latin America, Essay Example

There is one constant and consistent myth that can be found across the West Indies and parts of Central and South America. This myth is the much feared and reported soucouyant. A soucouyant manifests itself as a ball of fire in the sky that moves about as if looking for something or someone. It can stop in midair, hover for a while and then change direction completely. If you get too close, it will hiss at you before moving off. Its searches have even known to take it into houses where it moves from room to room before exiting through a window. While many such myths such as this can be written off as old wives tales or the product of overactive imaginations, the sheer number and quality of reports of soucouyant encounters makes it more difficult with this particular phenomenon. Respected members of society such as judges, politicians, police officers, pilots and doctors have all testified to seeing a soucouyant at some point in their lives.

The story that has grown up around this phenomenon is that the soucouyant is really an old woman who usually lives at the end of a town or village. By night she has the power to strip off her skin, which she stores in a mortar, before changing herself into a flying ball of fire. She then flies off into the night searching for victims whose blood she can suck. The blood drained from a victim is then traded for evil powers from spirits that reside under silk cotton trees.[1] These trees are the source of another myth which states that they should be avoided at night. Over the decades there have been numerous reports of late night passersby hearing the voices of spirits conversing below the silk cotton tree.  The victim of a soucouyant always reports the next day feeling weak and aching all over. The main defence from a soucouyant attack is to either place salt into the mortar containing her skin. This prevents her from donning her skin again and results in death. The other device is to scatter grains of rice outside your front door at night or at a crossroads. A passing soucouyant is obliged to count every grain of rice, which usually delays her until dawn, allowing the villagers to catch her in the act.[2]  

Needless to say, the myth of the soucouyant resembles European tales of vampires and is attributed to variations of vampire tales brought to the region by European colonists and migrants. However surprisingly there may be some truth to this myth. Scientists have now verified the existence of an atmospheric electrical phenomenon known as ball lightning. While there is not as yet much empirical data explaining this phenomenon, ball lightning manifests itself as a ball of fire in the sky which moves about as if searching for something. It manifests all the characteristics of a soucouyant. It moves as if it has intelligence, it can hover and will make a hissing sound at anyone who comes close.

It has been witnessed by thousands of people across the world. The village of Hessdalen in Norway is especially known for the proliferation of ball lightning in the skies. The phenomenon is also known as naga fireballs in South East Asia, St Elmo’s fire, red sprites, will-o’-the-wisp or Brown Mountain Lights.[3] At present scientific theories abound for the existence of ball lightning, the most interesting of which is that it may be primordial microscopic black holes moving through the planet’s atmosphere. Physicists in Israel have even claimed to have created an artificial sphere of ball lightning in their laboratory in Tel Aviv.[4]

The obvious lesson that can be learned from the belief in soucouyants is that what appears to be inexplicable and therefore supernatural, may have a perfectly rational explanation waiting to be discovered.

Bibliography

Great Balls of Lightning, Institute of Physics [online] available at http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/24175 accessed on June 10, 2011

Handwerk, B. Ball Lightning: A Shocking Scientific Mystery National Geographic News, May 31 2006 [online] available at http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/05/060531-ball-lightning.html

Williams, E. (1970) From Columbus to Castro: The History of the Caribbean London, Andre Deutsch

[1] Williams, E. (1970) From Columbus to Castro: The History of the Caribbean London, Andre Deutsch p. 446

[2] Ibid p. 448

[3] Handwerk, B. Ball Lightning: A Shocking Scientific Mystery National Geographic News, May 31 2006 [online] available at http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/05/060531-ball-lightning.html accessed on June 11, 2011  

[4] Great Balls of Lightning, Institute of Physics [online] available at http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/24175 accessed on June 10, 2011